Playing cards



Jan. 14, 1930. l. L.. LEsAvoY PLAYING CARDS Filed Jan. 4,: 1929 uavao.JOKER Patented Jan. 14, 1930 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PLAYING CARDSApplication fed January 4, 1929. Serial No. 330,336.

The present invention, at least indirectly, relates to the well-knowngame of chess; but, at the same time, the subject of the inventionis anew deck of playing cards.

( The invention has two main objects: the first, to provide a novel andrecreational game; and, second, to provide a playing card game ofpreparatory instructional value to those intending later on to take upfor the iirst time the playing of the ordinary game of chess, or even tothose who have previously attempted to play the ordinary game of chessbut without marked success due to a failure to realize certain relativesacrificevalues of the different chessmen according to the principlesset forth in United States Letters Patent to me No. 1,628,412.

The present invention, and various other objects and advantages thereof,will be clearly understood from the following description of anembodiment thereof as at' present preferred, and illustrated in theaccompanying drawing; it being understood, of course, that suchembodiment presents merely an illustrative one of the many possible waysof carrying out the invention.V

Therefore, as to the form of the invention shown in said drawing, it isparticularly to be understood that the detailed description thereof nowto be given is not to be taken at all as defining or limiting theinvention itself. It is desirable also to emphasize at this point that,broadly, the essence of the invention is the provision of a plurality ofplaying cards of dierent obverse or face markings, such markingssignificant of different chessmen and/or different numbers or valuesrelative to trick-taking power or honor-worth. lVhere such numbers orvalues are in any suitable way marked upon or indicated by the cards,they are preferably carried by the faces of the cards in such Wise thata card representative of a particular kind of chessman, at least in thecase of the cards representative of the attacking chessmen (i. e., allchessmen except the King), will also carry a number or value more orless appropriate to the attacking or relativesacrifice-value of thechessman indicated by 50 the card, in an actual game of chess. The

fundamentals of the invention are as already stated; whether or not allchessmen are given representative cards; likewise whether or not a cardor cards additional to the chessmenrepresentative cards areincorporated; further, whether or not cards are employed to make up thenew deck to have more or less cards in toto, or more or less cards of aparticular suit or color, or more or less cards representative of aparticular type of chessman, than as hereinafter described; further,whether or not some or all of the cards of the new deck vary from thoseshown in the accompanying drawing, particularly as to the pictorial andnumerical representations shown thereon, by substitution or eliminationor addition; also, whether or not the new deck of cards be intended tobe played by the number of players or according to the rules of theparticular game hereinbelow set forth in detail as a means offacilitating a description of the embodiment of the inventionillustrated in said drawing.

As to the particular game just referred to, then, the rules for theplaying of the same given in detail hereinbelow are not, of course, tobe taken as at all defining or limiting the invention itself, any morethan the particular cards and the particular deck of cards hereinbelowlikewise described in detail. While said particular game is one wellcalculated firmly to fix in the memory of a player certain fundamentalfacts and factors important to be kept in mind in successfully Y playingthe ordinary game of chess, and while said particular game has beenfound to be continuously interesting over prolonged A playing periods;it is obvious that a multitude of other and different games according toother rules now or hereafter to be devised may be played with theillustrated and other card and deck embodiments of the invention,designed for various numbers of players, just as are the long-knownCassino deck of 52 cards, pinochle deck of 48 cards, bezique deck of 32cards and Spanish deck of 40 cards each capable of use in playing manygames. To sum up all the foregoing, the scope of protection contemplatedis to be taken solely from the appended claims, interpreted as broadlyas is consistent with the prior art, and with explanatory references tothe speciiication onl where a claim is ambiguous or to be implledlylimited beyond its express terms to avoid such art in order to save thevalidity of the claim.

In the accompanying drawing,

Figs. 1 to 6 show the obverse sides or faces of different cards eachrepresentative of a different kind of chessman, marked to sug gest suchchessman and appropriate numerical values in accordance with presentpreferences, while Fig. 7 similarly illustrates an auxiliary ard havingmarkings not necessarily sugestive 0f Va chessman or the, game ofchess,-

whichmayalso form a part of the new deck. In the. embodiment of theinvention as now preferred, the deck consists of 33 cards, if twosuitsor'colors, say red and black, the deck. consisting of 16 cards ofeach suit, to Wit, one King (Figi), one Queen (Fig. 2), two Castles(Fig. 3), two Knights (Fig. 4.). two Bishops (Fig. 5), and eight PawnsFig. 6) and also an extra card, as a Joker (Fig. 7). Such a. deckprovides, for instance,

a three-handed game, or a four-handed game wherein the players Vtaketurns in acting as dummy according to any rule or ruleslformulated.;providing say eleven cards for each of the three players on each deal,and consequently providing for eleven tricksfor each game; while for atwo-handed game the deck just-described could be furnished without theauxiliary card of Fig. 7, or the two players oould'leave the latter cardout of play; thus providing say 16 cards for each of the two players oneach deal, and consequently providing for 16 tricks for each game.

vEach of the various cards making up any desiredy deck according to thepresent invention is preferably of' coursel so made up that the reverseor back thereof is either plain or of the same designas all theothercards, so as to be non-indicative of the markings on the obversides orfaces of the cards.

Also, for convenience, as in the case of ordinary'playing cards, each ofthe cards of the deck illustrated in the drawing has an obverse which isof the reversed-indicia type. Consequently,herein, for shortening thedescriptive matter, reference will now only be madey tothe upper half ofeach of the cards illustrated in l said drawing.

As will be noted, each card asshown in Figs.`1 to 6, may carry ahorizontal line or lines midway between its top and bottom, to mark thezone of indicia-reversal; and

' above lthe left-hand end of this line, there is inscribed a number(the same numeral as is carriedy at the upper right-hand corner ofthe-card) so that. at least one of the numerical indications` referredto, on each of a plurality of cards, will always be visible to a playerhaving said plurality of cards spread fanwise in his hand.

Referring further to each of the cards shown in Figs. l to 6, the upperleft-hand corner carries the name or initial (as King, Fig. l, or B,Fig. 5) of tlie chessman which the card represents; the upper right-handcorner carries a numeral indicative of the relative sacrice-value ofthat chessman (as 8, Fig. 2, or l, Fig. 6) the cards designated at theirupper left-hand corners by only the initial of the'chessman representedcarry elsewhere thereon the full name for which that initial stands (asKnight, Fig. 4, rand Pawn, Fig. 6) a card representant of a chessmanknown to players of different schools under different names carriesthereon the additional name iny parentheses (as Oiias to relative heightso far as other chessmen shown on other cards are concerned.

(Although not so illustrated, the word i Rook may also be inscribed onthe face of .1

the card of Fig. 3, if desired; since the chessman there represented issometimes also referred to by chess-players as a Rook.)

he King and Queen cards (Figs. l and 2) may carry, as illustrated, inorder further to carry en the work of ehess-teachingto players ofthe newcard game, miniature representations of the dissimilar crowns comlOUmonly employed .to designate- Kingcandk Queen pieces in pocketchess-sets and in diagrams of Vplay in chess text-books. Conveniently,as shown in the drawing, these crowns may also be placed at the upperlefthand corners of the cards.

TheA Knight (Fig. 4) and the Bishop (Fig. 5) are sometimes, perhapsordinarily, deemed to have the same maneuverabilityfactor, or attackingefficiency, that is, to

have the same sacrifice-value; however, my own observations havepersuaded Vme that the Knight is generally of somewhat slightly highersacrifice-value than the Bishop, and consequently, and because it isdesirable in a card game not to have two vcards of dis-V tinctlydifferent designs have the same trick or honor value, the numericalindications on the Knight, it will be noted, are 2+,

while those on the Bishop are 2 Vhere the new deck includes a pluralityof suits of chessman-indicative cards, as in the embodiment beingdescribed, these suits,

as already indicated, may conveniently be established by the use ofdifferent colors, applied` in any desired Way, or to any desired spot orspots, on the faces of the cards.

For instance, the two suits, say red and black, already referred to inconnection with the 32 or 33-card deck pursuant to the present inventionnow being described, may be indicated, respectively, by printing all theindicia on the faces of the cards as shown in Figs. l to 6, in red ink,or in black.

Let us say that the game desired to be played with the embodiment of theinvention including cards as above described, is to be a three-handedone, that honors as well as tricks are to be counted, and that such gameis to be the particular one hereinabove referred to as having beenactually played with continuous interest over a prolonged period.

Hoyles general rules for card games are followed in all particularsexcept those now to be mentioned. The game may be an auction or biddingone, or not, as desired. The dealer deals the cards one by one, to eachof the three players, for two deals, then deals three cards to the tablefor a widow or blind, then continues dealing to the three players onecard at a time, until each of the three players holds ten cards. Thepone, or the player to the left of the dealer, first chooses one of thethree face-down cards in the blind, and adds it to his cards received onthe deal, to give him a hand of eleven cards. The next player to theleft does the same, and finally the dealer takes the remaining card inthe blind and adds it to his own hand. The pone now leads, and the otherplayers, in the order just indicated, follow.

If it is a non-bidding game, the pone may, before the playing of thefirst trick, declare trumps; that is, designate the red or the blacksuit as trumps for that particular game. If it is a bidding game, eachplayer may, after he examines his card drawn from the blind, bid ontricks; the pone having the first bid, the player to his left next andthe dealer last. Thus the pone may first bid three red for instance, andthe player to his left may next bid four black, whereupon, if the dealerdoes not now'overbid the last bid, this particular game proceeds, withthe black suit trumps, and with the player to the left of the pone underthe obligation of taking at least four tricks. Scoring, as to thesuccessful bidder and the ether players, as affected by whether or notsuch bidder makes his bid or fails to do so, and in regard to tricks Yorhonors or both, may be according to any schedule agreedexcept that it isalways desirable to have the cards carrying thehigher numericalnotations constitute the higher honors.

If it is a bidding game, the successful bidder leads first, the playerto his left next, and the remaining player next. l

In trick-taking power, the numerals at the upper right-hand corners ofthe cards,

auxiliary card is preferred for a threehanded game; to have the samenumber of cards in each hand, and at the same time to utilize a numberof cards of each suitor color corresponding to the number of differentchessmen employed in the ordinary game of chess. Two colors or suits arepreferred, rather than say a deck of 64 cards, having, for instance,red, orange, black and blue colors or suits, since there are only twocolors or sets of chessmen in the ordinary game of chess.

It will be noted that the King card (Fig. l) is, for example, given thenumeral l0, that is, a value somewhat higher than that of the mostpowerful of the attacking chessmen (the Queen) in order to bring out,regardless of any differences of opinion as to the relative attackingpower of the King when used occasionally as an attacker, the outstandingimportance of the King in the ordinary gaine of chess, as it is ofcourse generally known that check-mating an opponents King wins thegame.

Thus it will be seen that I have provided a novel and useful type ofplaying card, and deck of playing cards, and one well calculated to haveall the advantages and attain all the objects hereinabove referred to.

Inasmuch as many changes could be made in the above-describedembodiment, and many apparently widely different embodiments of theinvention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it isintended, as already pointed out in certain particulars, that all mattercontained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawing,shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also tol be understood that the language oontained in thefollowing claims is intended to cover all the generic and specificfeatures of the invention herein described, as well also as allstatements of the scope of the invention which, asa matter of language,might be said to fall therebetween.

I claim:

l. A deck of playing cards adapted to facilitate the learning ofimportant features of the game of chess by the playing of a card gamewith said deck; said deck comprising thirty-two cards (for a two-handedgame) and a joker which, when in play, makes a deck of thirty-threecards (for a threehanded game); the thirty-two cards firstmentionedbeing divided into two suits of sixteen cards each, each card of eachsuit bearing an indicium of the suit of which that card is a member, theindicia for the two suits-being different, and in each suit the sixteencards thereof being made up asV follows, Viz, one King card bearingthereon the conventional `representation of a `.1:ing, one Queen cardbearing thereon the conventional representation of a queen, two Castlecards each bearing thereon the conventional representation of a castle,two Knight cards each bearing thereon the onventional representation-ofa castle, two Bishop cards each bearing thereon the conventionalrepresentation of a bishop, and eight Pawn cards each bearinor thereonthe conventional representation of a pawn; ach of said King, Queen,Castle, Knight, Bishop and Pawn cards of both suits having a singlenumerical significance, such significance indicated on each card by anappro-v priate numerical, such'numeral being l for a Pawn card, 2 for aBishop card, "2 for a Knight card, 4 for a Castle card, 8 for a Queencard, and 10 for a King card.

2. The deck of playing cards as described h claim 1, wherein each Knightcard, in addition to the numeral 2 carried thereby as aforesaid, alsoca'rries an indicium signiying that a Knight card is of higher value tan a Bishop card.

ISADORE LAWRENCE LESAVOY.

